Chapter 301

Yeong-woon, Pyo Sang-guk, and So-min were bewildered.

Jin Ja-gang seemed both tense and fearful. Either way, it was an expression they hadn’t seen before.

So-min called Jin Ja-gang once more.

“Young Master Jin?”

Jin Ja-gang suddenly spoke with a sharp expression.

“Ignore this matter. There will be another opportunity.”

“Brother Jin!”

“You… are not someone who can handle this.”

Jin Ja-gang’s voice trembled. Beads of sweat even formed on his forehead.

Hearing Jin Ja-gang’s words, Pyo Sang-guk became angry and shouted.

“If you don’t want to, say you don’t want to! If you’re scared, say you’re scared! I thought Brother Jin was a good person, but I was mistaken! Ptui!”

Pyo Sang-guk spat and rushed out without giving anyone time to stop him.

“Are you really not going?”

Jin Ja-gang didn’t even answer So-min’s question.

“Young Master Jin, we are disciples of orthodox sects. We cannot retreat when seeing evil.”

So-min looked at Jin Ja-gang with a disappointed expression and followed Pyo Sang-guk. Yeong-woon did the same.

Immediately after the three left, Jin Ja-gang vomited black clots of blood from his mouth.

Black blood vessels protruded on his neck and face. His body trembled.

The food sent by Piercing Ghost contained tremendous deadly poison. It was the most excruciating pain among all the poisons he had experienced. His limbs and fingers and toes felt as if they were falling off joint by joint.

Murderous intent beyond madness poured from Jin Ja-gang’s eyes. Killing intent more intense than ever before covered all directions.

The poison was so vicious that the demon in Jin Ja-gang’s brain, which he had barely managed to subdue, was stimulated and awakened.

The food in the basket entered Jin Ja-gang’s eyes, gleaming with killing intent. Jin Ja-gang grabbed handfuls of food and stuffed them into his mouth.

Crunch crunch!

Black blood vessels protruded on his neck and shoulders, but Jin Ja-gang didn’t stop eating. No, he couldn’t stop. The more he ate the poisoned food, the denser the killing intent Jin Ja-gang emitted became.

And proportionally, his hunger became extreme.

A side effect of the Jade Void Nine Lights Five Thunder Toad Art.

Jin Ja-gang, who had been frantically eating the poisoned food for a while, suddenly vomited what he was eating and fell prone on the ground, wailing.

“Ahhhhhhh!”

He clawed at the ground frantically with his nails. His nails turned blue with bruises, his fingertips split and bled.

“Ugh, kugh!”

Jin Ja-gang struck the ground with his bare fists and gritted his teeth while tensing his entire body.

His whole body was soaked in sweat.

How long had he endured with such strength?

Jin Ja-gang’s rigid body gradually softened at some point.

Jin Ja-gang slowly regained stability while sweat dripped from his face.

“Huff. Huffffff.”

Finally, the demon fell asleep.

This was because Jin Ja-gang’s body adapted to the poison and the stimulus of pain disappeared.

Jin Ja-gang straightened his back, tilted his head back, and breathed deeply into his lungs.

His limbs still tingled. A deadly poison that had almost no lethality but inflicted terrible pain enough to awaken the demon in his brain.

Had Piercing Ghost used such poison on the villagers?

“Piercing Ghost…”

Crack.

Jin Ja-gang bit his teeth audibly and clenched his fist with all his might.

* * *

A cold wind blew as early evening approached.

Yeong-woon, Pyo Sang-guk, and So-min ran through the dark forest path using light body techniques. It was the direction the leper assassin had mentioned.

“I smell blood!”

“Then this direction is right!”

They smelled it with their noses first, but soon they could see the lights of houses with their eyes.

The three gritted their teeth.

If the smell of blood reached this far, what terrible things must have happened in the village!

“I can’t believe it. How could Young Master Jin be like that?”

At So-min’s words, Yeong-woon shouted.

“Don’t think about other things now! Focus on the enemy before us!”

The three raised their internal energy to the maximum and entered the village with full preparation.

An ordinary village with fires lit everywhere.

However, along with the nauseating smell of blood that seemed to paralyze the nose, terrible screams could be heard from the moment they entered the village.

“Ahhhhh!”

“Save me! Save me, uwahhh!”

“So, someone please!”

“Ahhh! Ahhhhhh!”

The three people’s hair stood on end at the screams.

As if proving that what the leper assassin had called hell was not a lie, terrible screams were heard from all directions.

“Wha, what is this…!”

Bang!

Someone burst through the door of a house. It was a middle-aged village resident whose upper clothes were soaked in blood. He was in such pain that tendons stood out on his neck and blue blood vessels protruded from his forehead.

“Ahhhhh, kugh! Please save me, please save me!”

The middle-aged man writhed his entire body, struggled, and rolled around on the ground.

“Hey! Are you alright?”

So-min ran over and grabbed the middle-aged man.

“Kughhhh…”

The middle-aged man clutched So-min’s arm. It was a desperate look asking for help. So-min examined the man’s body. There was a hole big enough for a thumb below his neck in the collarbone area. She quickly applied pressure points around the collarbone to stop the bleeding, but the man’s agonized screams didn’t stop.

“It’s not because of the wound. Young Master Jin was right. It seems to be because of poison!”

Pyo Sang-guk looked around angrily.

From houses and yards, people were crawling out onto the road while writhing their bodies everywhere.

“Me, me too please!”

“Help me too!”

“Krahh!”

“Kahhhh!”

People screamed and cried out in anguish. All of them had their upper bodies stained with blood due to blood seeping from holes in their collarbones.

They had screamed for so long that their voices were hoarse and their faces were red.

The victims were of all ages and genders. Among them was even a mother holding her child who had already fainted from pain.

The three people could only stand there helplessly, not knowing what to do.

There was no way to reduce the pain.

They could only watch people screaming in agony.

So-min’s heart ached so much she couldn’t even look at the people asking for help.

Then the three felt a piercing, sharp energy.

Creak.

A tall old man was coming out, opening the door of the house next to them. Only his eyes were visible with his nose and mouth covered, and both hands were hidden in sleeves clasped in front of his chest.

He didn’t look pained at all and wasn’t screaming. Rather, he seemed to have a joyful expression.

And from inside the house he came from, screams began. The old man hummed along with the screams.

Yeong-woon shouted.

“I am Yeong-woon of Wudang! Who are you, sir!”

“Let me see…”

The old man looked around and said.

“The friend I actually called isn’t here, but where did a few grains of rice roll in from?”

“Grains of rice?”

The three gritted their teeth. It was probably the first time in their lives they had been compared to grains of rice.

Pyo Sang-guk kicked off the ground and rushed at the old man. The old man leaped onto the roof on tiptoe. Pyo Sang-guk followed, stomping his feet to climb onto the roof.

“Let me taste these grains of rice…”

The old man’s figure vanished with a whoosh.

“Behind!”

Yeong-woon shouted. Pyo Sang-guk was startled and turned his body while throwing a punch. But nothing was visible.

“Wh, where!”

“Hehehe.”

The old man’s laughter was heard right next to his ear. Pyo Sang-guk was terrified and spun around throwing a punch. Fist shadows were drawn in the air and wind sounds rang heavily.

Thud thud thud!

It was empty space.

“I said behind you!”

Hearing the frustrated cries of Yeong-woon and So-min, he looked back, but Pyo Sang-guk still couldn’t see the old man.

“Why don’t you listen to your friends? I’m behind you.”

The old man’s voice was heard next to his ear again. He could even feel hot breath.

Goosebumps ran down Pyo Sang-guk’s spine.

“Where are you looking?”

A voice tickling his nape.

Pyo Sang-guk quickly moved his body using Zhongnan Sect’s movement technique, Cloud Dragon Step.

A faint afterimage remained on the roof as Pyo Sang-guk’s body swayed left and right. The old man’s body swayed exactly following Pyo Sang-guk.

Pyo Sang-guk concentrated his internal energy to the maximum trying to shake off the old man following behind him. But the voice came from right behind him as if nothing happened.

“Hehehe. Cloud Dragon Step? It’s slower than the Cloud Dragon Step I’ve seen before?”

“You disgusting old monster! Won’t you get away from me!”

“Should I?”

The old man’s voice stopped. Pyo Sang-guk drew out his internal energy to the maximum and tried to twist his waist and unleash a barrage of punches.

Zhongnan Invincible…!

But the moment he turned his head, the old man was stuck right in front of him so close that he couldn’t extend his fist. The old man was attached to Pyo Sang-guk so closely their bodies almost touched.

The old man grinned.

“Brother Pyo!”

Yeong-woon and So-min leaped onto the roof and attacked the old man. Pyo Sang-guk also jumped back while deploying Zhongnan Invincible Fist. Then the old man separated the sleeves clasped in front of his chest and stretched out his right hand.

Pyo Sang-guk’s Zhongnan Invincible Fist was pushed back by one of the old man’s fingers.

Poof.

As the fist wind of Zhongnan Invincible Fist crumbled, the old man’s finger penetrated between Pyo Sang-guk’s collarbones without resistance like piercing tofu. Pyo Sang-guk’s eyes opened wide. The old man kicked Pyo Sang-guk and sent him flying.

Yeong-woon attacked the old man’s lower back with Wudang Cotton Palm. So-min slashed at the old man’s ankle with her sword.

Whoosh!

In an instant, the old man’s front and back switched. The back of his head became his face. He had reversed his body at tremendous speed.

The old man took the Wudang Cotton Palm full in the chest while extending his right hand. Yeong-woon, prepared for damage, didn’t give up the Wudang Cotton Palm and continued pushing. The old man’s finger stabbed between Yeong-woon’s collarbones.

“Kugh!”

Meanwhile, So-min attacked the old man’s ankle. The old man kicked So-min’s sword with his front foot. So-min twisted her sword. So-min’s blade embedded in the toe of his leather shoe.

But the sword stopped completely and wouldn’t move. So-min pulled the sword with all her might, but it didn’t budge.

Thud thud thud.

Thanks to So-min shaking the sword left and right, the old man’s leather shoe was torn off, revealing his bare foot. Blunt lumps that couldn’t even be called toe shapes. Only the thumb and middle toe remained.

And So-min’s sword was caught between them.

The old man twisted his ankle. Though So-min desperately held onto her sword, she couldn’t match the old man’s toe strength, and her arms, shoulders, and upper body turned.

The old man pulled his finger from Yeong-woon’s collarbone.

The old man’s fingers were the same as his toes. No, his fingers were worse. All other fingers had fallen off leaving only the middle finger. Even that was only about two joints.

The old man’s blood-stained finger slowly approached So-min. So-min’s eyes were filled with terror.

“Ah!”

So-min pushed internal energy into her sword and pulled with all her might. The old man’s toes interfered with the sword energy. So-min threw away her shame and kicked the old man’s groin. Only then did the old man spread his toes and let go. So-min was finally able to pull out her sword.

The old man praised.

“Very good posture. Even disciples of prestigious orthodox sects must act like unorthodox sects if they don’t want to die.”

“No!”

So-min screamed, but the old man ignored her and pushed his finger forward. So-min raised her sword to block, but the old man’s finger ignored it and pushed in.

Clang!

The sword struck by the old man’s finger vibrated madly and rang. So-min’s grip tore and she dropped her sword. The old man’s finger faced no more interference and stabbed So-min’s collarbone.

Almost simultaneously, Yeong-woon and So-min rolled down from the roof.

After falling into the yard, the three convulsed.

“Kugh!”

“Ahh, ahhhhhh!”

Screams began flowing from the three people’s mouths as well.